'Def Comedy Jam' Producers Hook Up with Comedy Central

Russell Simmons and Stan Lathan started it back in the 90’s. And here are some names that made their bones when ‘Def Comedy Jam’ ran on HBO. David Chappelle, Chris Tucker, Martin Lawrence and the late great Bernie Mac. Don’t forget radio and TV’s Steve Harvey who was on the popular series as well.

Some of today’s hottest African American comedians made their way through this show and this writer leveraged off that series to produce comedy shows back in Philadelphia way back then.

Now Comedy Central is going in to business with these two moguls. With a new standup comedy series yet to be titled though comic J.B. Smoove has been named as show host.

Six half hour episodes will be produced which means the network will test it out first to see if there’s a hole now for African American comedy on television. Known for its raunchy humor, ‘Def Comedy Jam’ brought in tons of viewers because of its content. We’ll see if it works for Comedy Central.